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Don’t blame Max Domi if he pops into the coaches office at Budweiser Gardens on Friday just to double-check if Dale Hunter is still there.

The London Knights played in Brampton Thursday night. When they paid their one Powerade Centre visit a little more than a year ago, the players woke up the next morning to find out their head coach was on his way to Washington to coach the NHL’s Capitals.

“We were all shocked,” recalled Domi, the sophomore forward.

There’s little chance of a repeat exit happening again. The NHL is still trying to hammer out a deal to play games this season.

But the lessons from that Nov. 27th game — a 2-1 Knights squeaker of a win — remain firmly implanted in the players who were part of it.

“It was kind of funny because we weren’t playing that great and he gave us a pretty good wake-up call on the bench,” Domi said. “He let us know we better start figuring it out. It was during one of the TV timeouts. He’s a pretty composed guy and when he’s mad at us, we know.

“We deserved it and it got us going. I think we won that game because of that and that ended up being our last game with him last year.”

The Knights, of course, won the OHL championship under Mark Hunter and brother Dale coached the Caps to within one win of the Eastern Conference final.

“It was pretty cool,” Domi said. “On the road trips after he left, we were cheering on (Hunter) and watching him on the bench.”

Now he’s back and thanks to the Knights’ hot first half, was seeking his 475th victory Thursday night. Barring a major swoon, he’ll be the quickest coach to 500 wins in OHL history, something he could accomplish late this regular season.

It looks like he’s staying put, but the Battalion aren’t.

The Brampton club is on the move to North Bay — with GM and coach Stan Butler in tow — after this season so this was the Knights’ last visit.